Nigeria is a paradoxical paradise. People as vast in experience as Lamido Sanusi understand this to a t. The problem with a wide array of educated Nigerians is that they are thriving from an upside down system that delivers them various degrees of prosperity. So no one is in a hurry for change and no one wants the status quo to be upset. Even some who are Twitter activists by day are benefitting from the system at night.
From the hustler immigration officer in Alagbon who earns N130,000 a month to do his job and still looks for every unwholesome way to hustle a quick buck from his fellow citizens in need of basic government services; to the hypocritical minister in Abuja who is either budgeting N2 billion to build his masters house or an events center after stealing similar amounts from fuel subsidy funds.
The reason the government complex in Nigeria is so vast and labyrinth like in structure is so that it can confuse the average citizen, civil rights activist and absent onlooker.
They deliberately design it to bamboozle. The FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed hopes to build Sambo’s house by 2015, just before the elections. Sambo would be thrilled and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Farook Lawan wants to be governor of Kano state. Isn’t Lamido Sanusi a royal from Kano as well? I doubt the Dan Majen of Kano would want the ilk of Farook Lawan ruling his home state. Sanusi understands the lawmakers are just crooked politicians and he wants us to join voices to pull them down.
Being in a sensitive position like the CBN makes it difficult for him to be to outspoken in his views but I see no reason why he couldn’t be governor of Kano. Hopefully by the 2015 elections, the violence would have subsided.
Even if Nigeria enters into a period of peace from political violence, the threat of a civil uprising or bloody class war as a result of income disparity and economic injustice is ever present. People like Sanusi get this. They realize the sooner Nigeria begins to tackle its economic problems in a practical and alert manner, the sooner we stave off an economic war.
If the Nigerian police is cut by half and we train and fund the remaining 50% in a reasonable, judicious and effective manner, then we will have made progress in security.
Of all Sanusi’s genius especially concerning this proposal, one thing he may have omitted is the fact that the number of ghost workers on the Federal and State government payroll in Nigeria is probably more than the total number of 50% of actual government staff. His proposal needs to be provided with serious consideration.
A change is imperative. Unless we take the bull by the horns and work as hard as the horse in our coat of arms, and we see as far and clear as the eagle that perches atop it, we will forever be a country in reverse.